Reply to Comment on "High-field studies of superconducting fluctuations in high-Tc cuprates: Evidence for a small gap distinct from the large pseudogap" by M.V. Ramallo et al

The experimental investigations done in our paper Phys.Rev.B84,014522(2011) allowed us to establish that the superconducting fluctuations (SCF) always die out sharply with increasing T. But contrary to the claim done in the comment of Ramallo et al., this sharp cutoff of SCF measured in YBa2Cu3O{6+x} depends on hole doping and/or disorder. So our data cannot be used to claim for a universality of the extended gaussian Ginzburg Landau theory proposed by the authors of the comment. Furthermore, to explain quantitatively our data near optimal doping using this model they need to consider that fluctuations in the two CuO2 planes of a bilayer are totally decoupled, which is not physically well justified. On the contrary a consistent interpretation of all our data (paraconductivity, Nernst effect and magnetoresistance) has been done by considering that the coupling between the two layers of the unit cell is dominant at least up to 1.1Tc.Comment: Reply to the comment published in Phys. Rev. B 85,106501 (2012

Magneto-electric momentum transfer to atoms and molecules

We report the first observation of mechanical momentum transferred to atoms and molecules upon application of crossed electric and magnetic fields. We identify this momentum as the microscopic analogue of the classical Abraham force. Several predictions of additional magneto-electrically induced mechanical momentum are addressed. One of them, proposed to result from the interaction with the quantum vacuum, is experimentally refuted, others are found to be currently below experimental detection.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, one tabl

Chirality, magnetism and light

No abstract available

Strong electrical magneto-chiral anisotropy in tellurium

We report the experimental observation of strong electrical magneto-chiral anistropy (eMChA) in trigonal tellurium (t-Te) crystals. We introduce the tensorial character of the effect and determine several tensor elements and we propose a novel intrinsic bandstructure-based mechanism for eMChA which gives a reasonable description of the principal results

High Field Studies of Superconducting Fluctuations in High-T_c Cuprates: Evidence for a Small Gap distinct from the Large Pseudogap

We have used pulsed magnetic fields up to 60Tesla to suppress the contribution of superconducting fluctuations(SCF)to the conductivity above Tc in a series of YBa2Cu3O6+x from the deep pseudogapped state to slight overdoping. Accurate determinations of the SCF conductivity versus temperature and magnetic field have been achieved. Their joint quantitative analyses with respect to Nernst data allow us to establish that thermal fluctuations following the Ginzburg-Landau(GL) scheme are dominant for nearly optimally doped samples. The deduced coherence length xi(T) is in perfect agreement with a gaussian (Aslamazov-Larkin) contribution for 1.01Tc<T<1.2Tc. A phase fluctuation contribution might be invoked for the most underdoped samples in a T range which increases when controlled disorder is introduced by electron irradiation. For all dopings we evidence that the fluctuations are highly damped when increasing T or H. The data permits us to define a field Hc^prime and a temperature Tc^prime above which the SCF are fully suppressed. The analysis of the fluctuation magnetoconductance in the GL approach allows us to determine the critical field Hc2(0). The actual values of Hc^prime(0) and Hc2(0) are found quite similar and both increase with hole doping. These depairing fields, which are directly connected to the magnitude of the SC gap, do therefore follow the Tc variation which is at odds with the sharp decrease of the pseudogap T* with increasing hole doping. This is on line with our previous evidence that T* is not the onset of pairing. We finally propose a three dimensional phase diagram including a disorder axis, which allows to explain most peculiar observations done so far on the diverse cuprate families.Comment: revised version, to be published in Physical Review B. Small modifications have been done in paragraphs VI.A and VI

Inverse Cotton-Mouton effect of the Vacuum and of atomic systems

In this letter we calculate the Inverse Cotton-Mouton Effect (ICME) for the vacuum following the predictions of Quantum ElectroDynamics. We compare the value of this effect for the vacuum with the one expected for atomic systems. We finally show that ICME could be measured for the first time for noble gases using state-of-the-art laser systems and for the quantum vacuum with near-future laser facilities like ELI and HiPER, providing in particular a test of the nonlinear behaviour of quantum vacuum at intensities below the Schwinger limit of 4.5x10^33 W/m^2.Comment: Submitted to EP

Observation of the Inverse Cotton-Mouton Effect

We report the observation of the Inverse Cotton-Mouton Effect (ICME) i.e. a magnetization induced in a medium by non resonant linearly polarized light propagating in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. We present a detailed study of the ICME in a TGG crystal showing the dependence of the measured effect on the light intensity, the optical polarization, and on the external magnetic field. We derive a relation between the Cotton-Mouton and Inverse Cotton-Mouton effects that is roughly in agreement with existing experimental data. Our results open the way to applications of the ICME in optical devices